in the spirit of summer travel...

I've been working on some travel journal layouts and in the spirit of summer, travel and creating journals with our photos, I've decided to do a giveaway.

What will it be this time?

How about a brand spankin' new copy of 7 gypsies in Paris? This book was published in 2004 and is no longer in print. Its cover is soft and has the feel of an old and worn journal...it's even embossed. The whole interior graphic design resembles a travel art journal and there are several interactive pages, including a shopping bag book project that I contributed.

I think that this book was published before its time...a time when most scrapbook artists didn't see the point of memory art in home decor projects...a time when simple scrapping dominated the market place. But now, all you have to do is spend a couple of hours surfing through memory art blogs and there are home decor projects everywhere.

While I know that a lighter and brighter shabby vintage is really big now, why not add a little variety to your creations with an old vintage style?

To sweeten the pot, I'm also going to include a pack of vintage 7 gypsy papers and embellies...some of these are discontinued products...ooooh la la!

All you need to do is to share with us about a favorite trip, a vacation you're taking this summer or your favorite way to preserve your vacation memories. I'll pick a comment...NO, WAIT! LET'S MAKE THAT TWO COMMENTS!!!!! and two of you will be the winners of a cool travel journal idea book and some fun stuff to play with.

How about if we keep the drawing open until Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m. (Arizona time)? Looking forward to hearing about your travels!!!!!

Comments

My husband and I celebrated our 20 year anniversary with a trip of a lifetime. We had just sold a business and put asside money for a three week trip that included all our favorites, GOLF, SUN and WINE.
The first week was in Fiji; second week in Kauai; and third week in Napa. The plane to Fiji refueled in Honolulu so we just got off and got back on a week later. Great travel agent!! After two weeks my husband finally relaxed. We tell everyone that you need to go somewhere for at least three weeks sometime in your life. We both love so much about the trip (now 10 years ago). I guess my favortie memory I look at every day..... On the actual day of our anniversary, my husband presented my at sunset with an anniversary ring with 20 little sparkling diamonds to honor every year and his love for me. I am one lucky girl!

Hi Carol
I enjoy reading your blog. I will share one thing I do on vacation to preserve my memories. I have two small sons (6 and 4) and things are usually busy, even on vacation. I take a journal with me. Not one I decorated already but just a plain journal that I can decorate when I return from the trip. In the journal I staple in a bunch of envelopes to hold ticket stubs and other kinds of memorabilia. Then each night once the boys are sleeping, I write in what we did and how the boys reacted and put in any memorabilia that I have from the day. When I come home I can decorate the journal or simply tear out the pages and put them right into a scrapbook. It has worked out well for me!!
Have a great day!
Kim

Hi Carol,
Well, I'm excited about this summer because it will be the first time in 6 years that I am going on a trip! I've spent the last 5 summers taking classes or now teaching them, so summer vacations have been on the back burner for a while. A good friend of mine moved up to Seattle last year and I took a leap of faith and booked a flight to go visit her next month. I've never been to that part of the country, and, of course, everyone says it's just beautiful! I am very excited to.... a) go on a vacation b) fly on a plane c) see my good friend d) visit a new place e) renew my spirit. I am planning on taking pictures to chronicle our experiences and maybe jot down notes at the moment to help capture and save that bit of time for a future memory book. Since it's been a while, I'm a little rusty in this department. I remember looking at this book that you are offering at Memory Lane when it came out. I loved it, but couldn't buy it at the time...but it is soooo unique and rich in its pages. Thank you for the chance to win a copy! : )

I'm taking a trip of a lifetime this summer.... and people I tell about it think I'm crazy. I'm going to the Grand Canyon! But that's not the crazy part.

I've always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, but living in Mississippi now and the east coast before that, I could never talk my family into taking a week or two to drive cross country (even though it sounds like a blast to me!). I have spent the last almost two years trying to rebuild my home due to significant damage from Katrina. I live in a 110 year old farm house that I have been trying to rennovate for several years now, so Katrina was a real set-back. Two years before Katrina, a tornado took the roof off over my head at 4:00 AM one morning. And shortly after Katrina, my husband decided he wanted a divorce so he could go "find himself". (Yes, my life has been crazy!) The youngest of my three kids just graduated high school a few weeks ago, so it's like everything in my life has changed at once. I'm looking at an empty nest, newly single, starting two new businesses to support myself (as a portrait photographer and designing and making silver and hot glass jewelry)..... AND I TURN 40 THIS SUMMER!

I wanted to do something big for my 40th birthday. Something to celebrate the milestone of just making it to this point. (Hey, it's been a long few years.) Something to mark the end of an era and the beginning of so many new things in my life. So I planned a cross-country drive with a girlfriend, ending at the Grand Canyon. Thelma and Louise without the cops chasing us (hopefully). Then she bailed on me. Yeah, some people have young kids at home to take care of and real jobs, I know.... but still I was disappointed.

I was whining about it to a high school friend that I had reconnected with back in the fall. We email regularly but haven't seen each other in 20 years. We were both part of the "smart" group at a small school, both band geeks, playing it safe, staying out of trouble. When I complained that I was cancelling my trip, he offered to go with me. I'm still in shock. But with something like 3 weeks notice, he put in for vacation, bought a plane ticket to fly the 800 miles to my home, and did what it took to make this dream trip come true for me. (And no, we never dated in high school..... we were just friends.) So, he's flying in and we're getting in my car, top down, music cranked up, and driving 22 hours west so I can stand on the edge of the grand canyon the day of my 40th birthday.

He's a photographer too so we plan to stop anytime something strikes our fancy and take lot of pictures.

When I travel, I carry a notebook with pockets. I jot down notes and collect things for my scrapbook/journal like brochures, post cards, ticket stubs, etc. At night I usually write more detailed journal entries (on my laptop usually). When I get home, I go through it all and start really journaling. Sometimes I print out my journal entries and use them or rip out the notes in the notebooks and put them in. Sometimes I rewrite it all and put it together in a nice neat book. Of course, with LOTS and LOTS of pictures. I'd like to carry a moleskine and journal as I go but then I don't have anywhere to put the pictures in and as a photogrpaher, I need the pictures to tell the story.

I went to New York City with a friend this spring. I never imagined that I would ever do that. I walked the Brooklyn bridge and rode the subway. I took a jouranl with me and now I am using it to fill in the journalling for my trip scrapbook. I took 2 cameras with me and , I'm sure, there were times when I had a camera in each hand.
We are planning to go back someday and take our husbands. That means another journal and more photos. I can hardly wait.

We are planning another one of our trips this winter to Mexico and this time it is just my husband & I. Our kids are done with school and should be moving out but seem to hang on. I decided we needed another vacation together. The last time we went to Mexico I took along my Creative Memories deco file folder and handwrote on the little tabs the days of the week. I could slip in the folders all of the things that we picked up along the way such as brochures,ticket stubs, napkins, trinkets, postcards you name it. I too keep a small plain journal and write down what we did, etc., etc.,you get the point. then when I come home it is so much easier to get started on my projects. I think I would like to make an altered travel journal somehow before we leave. Could you post ideas sometime in the future?

My husband and I are going to Alaska this summer on a "photo safari" (so named by our travel agent...can it be a "safari" if you're in Alaska??). I absolutely cannot wait...we'll be flying into Anchorage and driving to Mt. McKinley, among other places, with plenty of time to stop and eat and take pictures and eat (did I mention eat?) along the way! I'm hoping to make some sort of travel journal before we go...if not, I'll be uploading my photos daily and will probably take notes in iPhoto so it's all ready when I get back.

My favorite trip ever was the trip to Mount Rushmore many years ago (10) when our girls were younger. We loaded up our suburban (with no air)and headed out. We camped along the way, finally reaching our destination after several nights in camp grounds that were beautiful. Mt. Rushmore was breathtaking. We took many pictures and talk about that trip often. My favorite evening was the night we stayed in a park where buffaloes roamed! It was scary and exciting at the same time!!! Ahhhhh - what fun!

Hey Carol!! I'm loving keeping up to date with you via your blog and super excited for NOV!! We travelled a bit growing up and a few trips in the last few years.
I have two favorite trips for the same reason - time spent with my family & extended family.
With mom & Wen its the trip to Cuba for their wedding, the kiddos came too it was great! And our day trips to PEI to visit with Wen's mom. The kids love playing at her house ...which has a grass "lane" too!
With my inlaws its our trips to PEI or Green BAY, NS. For the last 4 summers we've rented a cottage for 5 days and done nothing but hang out and relax - with 10 people (his parents, 6 of us "kids", and then 3 under the age of 7 life was never dull!). THis summer we have a new addiion to the family - my SIL is due beginning of AUG. Which should make our family trip to Halifax, NS for a cousins wedding interesting as always :)

Being that I rarely ever get to take a vacation, I am finally going to get a break! Right after I am all done with work during the summer, I am getting the opportunity to visit Yellowstone National Park! I can't hardly wait, as my summer work has really just begun! In the meantime, I shall be working on art projects to fill the time instead of waiting anxiously in anticipation for my very first plane ride as well! Would love a fun way to document it all. I'm already thinking of air-sickness bag books instead of paper bag books. Let the fun begin!

It was a trip that will always be part of me. We went to Scotland in 1987--before "scrapping" as we know it today. Our daughters were Highland dancers and we wanted them to be able to dance at a competition in Scotland. As they were growing up quickly (ages 17 and 14), we decided to go that summer. It was magnificant! We spent two weeks doing all the fun things that country has to offer. We studied the history, visited castles, toured the Scotch distilleries, took part in several highland games, went on a Murder Mystery Walk in Edinbough late at night, ate strange food, drove on the wrong side of the road and lived to tell about it, and generally immersed ourselves in the culture. Our family learned that travel is indeed broadening. We knew we would never look at our own country in the same way having experienced another. My "scrapbook" is a well worn photo album with lots of ticket stubs, clippings, ads, and all the memorabilia that I collected added to the jounaling of our days. My daughters still talk about the trip that was 20 years ago...a very lasting impression. There have been other important and exciting trips but none like the first taste of traveling abroad! My well worn photo album is in great need of being "redone" in a more archival manner. I know it could be more user friendly if it were brought up to date!

One of my favorite vacations was 4 years ago I went on a Napa Valley girlfriend getaway with three friends of mine. We had a blast!! The ultimate compliment was paid by a couple of younger gals who saw us touring one of the wineries and tasting the wine. They said they hoped that they "were just like us when they grew up"!

A trip to remember..oh the memories! The first trip I took to Disneyland with my 18mo old, her sleeping in her stroller and alice and wonderland coming up and leaning againist her stroller and pretending to be asleep next to her, that is the best picture ever...so great to experience a place like that through your childrens eyes, makes you see things in a whole other way. That trip we took was 10 days of disneyland, universal studios, knotts berry farm, legoland and the san diego zoo, another great part of the trip was my baby dancing on a sign pole while we were eating lunch!..It was classic! I will never forget that trip EVER!
Tammy

Last November, on the day after Thanksgiving, we took our 13 1/2 year old granddaughter on a 3 day shopping trip to the Mall of America in Minnesota. We shopped Saturday, Sunday and Monday for about 8 hours every day. Even she was dragging at the end of the third day. We did some Christmas shopping of our own, but bought all of her gifts while we were there, letting her pick out and try on everything. She is at that age where clothes are about all she wants, so this was the perfect trip for her. Dh and I had been there several times before, but this was her first. The look on her face when we walked in and she could see all 4 floors was worth the trip alone. And none of us had ever seen it decorated for Christmas, which was even better. It was a vacation that the 3 of us will remember for a lifetime. So many good meals, so many funny stories and laughs and so many memories!

Hi Carol!
I just enrolled in your Color of Your World class and I look forward to learning from you again!!
My husband and I just returned from a wonderful trip to Yellowstone. He'd never been and it was been 35 years since I was there. We had such an enjoyable time exploring the many beauties of nature. It was a fabulous experience and I plan to record our trip in a 7gypsies portfolio. I will use various "levels"/pages to incorporate all of the fun pictures we took.
I enjoy your blog! Keep it up!
Love ya,
Ann

Carol, I love your blog. I used to be a trvl agent years ago before the internet took over.. those were the days... been to a lot of places.. not overseas yet, but seeing Paris is a DREAM of mine. To go there and experience the places, the food, the people, the wines, the fleurs, and the smells and sounds of that famous city.. would be a dream come true for me...oh how this book looks so fab... thank you for offering it up to all of us... I'll be crossing my fingers.. last May in 2006, u can view my archives on my blog.. hubby and I took a great trip to Cali.. so fun.. our first time up the coast.. it was magical... so magical.... again, THANK YOU! hugs

okay - let's see, this summer - as we do every summer - we're hoping to go visit my mother and extended family about 10 hours north of here. I look forward to lazy days, visiting with childhood friends, picking berries, saunas and dips into chilly Lake Superior. The sun stays up later up there, and we've been able to see the northern lights a few times - Allan is hoping to catch them this year, I hope it works out. They are fickle, those northern lights. So our summer vacations are about relaxing, catching up, bonding and making memories.

favorite vacation, that one is easy. For our ten year wedding anniversary my hubby and I went on our first vacation together! We didn't have much money when we were first married, didn't even have much of a honeymoon, just a couple nights at a somewhat local (45 min drive LOL) resort, and vacations were out of the question for us, so for our 10 year we were finally able to afford a vacation and we went to San Franscisco and Napa Valley. It was the best time! I'll never forget the feeling I had as I boarded the plane that morning, total excitement. We took a ton of photos and funny enough, it is the only completed scrapbook that I have done, still look at it all the time!

It's not where we are going this summer, it's who we are going with. In August my family is going on a camping trip and when I say family I mean all of us - my brother and his wife and kids who live 2000 miles away, my dad who has been battling cancer, my mom, nieces and nephews, cousins, etc. I am so thrilled that everyone is making time in their busy lives for this trip. The years are flying by and I know the time for our family to all be together is becoming scarce. I really can't wait.

Favourite vacation??? It's always the one coming up! Whether it's coming up soon or two years from now, the next one is always the best. We are having our 24th anniversary this year and are going to England and Italy for a trip of a lifetime. (And how excited am I that 7 gypsies mid release is all Italian named papers?) This will be our first vacation ever without children. Most of our previous vacations have involved ball tournaments, piano recitals, choral speaking, etc., etc. - you know how it goes. And I've enjoyed every one. I plan on bringing a journal book, a small stapler and some envelopes along to take notes and keep memorabilia. All that and I'm also shopping for another memory card - or two.

Favourite vacation??? It's always the one coming up! Whether it's coming up soon or two years from now, the next one is always the best. We are having our 24th anniversary this year and are going to England and Italy for a trip of a lifetime. (And how excited am I that 7 gypsies mid release is all Italian named papers?) This will be our first vacation ever without children. Most of our previous vacations have involved ball tournaments, piano recitals, choral speaking, etc., etc. - you know how it goes. And I've enjoyed every one. I plan on bringing a journal book, a small stapler and some envelopes along to take notes and keep memorabilia. All that and I'm also shopping for another memory card - or two.

I can't say I have a favourite trip - I've been on many that were fun, although I've never travelled far. This summer (actually, starting tomorrow) I'm just going to Saskatchewan for a couple of weeks to visit relatives. It's a lot of fun to see them, although I've been there so many times that it no longer feels like an adventure.

Wow, some great vacations! Mine was last summer - we went back to our home town (Santa Rosa, CA), which we had moved away from 13 years ago. I have 3 boys (11,twins 5) and we spent three weeks in CA down to Monterey and over to the East Bay. We were there 23 days and I had the best vacation of my life. We did everything we had never done there and took our kids to all the places we had loved as children. To scrapbook it, I numbered the days and made a mini book with the places we went and put in small photos right when I got home to highlight each day and place(s)we went. This helped me later when I went back trying to remember what happened on what day. I will always do this in the future. Thanks for doing the giveaway!

This is going to be a busy, exciting summer for our family. In July we're taking our annual (except we missed it last year) trip to the NC beaches with 3 other families. We've been going since the 2 oldest boys were 3 years old---they are now 20! My oldest son once said he wanted to go to the mountains, and not the beach, but after heading off to college 2 years ago he can't wait to spend together time with all our friends on the shore. I love what a year away from the family does to some children, it brings them back home without any arguing. I love it!
At the end of that month I will be taking my first ever trip to New York City! Our 15 year old is attending theater camp up there, so I've taken the opportunity to make a mini vacation for the rest of us out of it. We'll walk, take in the sites plus see a show or two.
I'm excited to also be spending time with one of my sisters in Maryland. I remember vividly spending the summers with my aunt and uncle and doing thing mom would never let me do like eat cake in the morning. We'll walk, take in the sites plus see a show or two.
If my boys wanted to be creative, they'd make a calendar with the countdowns, but since they act like boys, they merely wake up in the morning announcing how many more days to the beach and then how many days beyond that until New York! Should I mention that my boys at home are aged 7, 11, 14 and 15? I love summer with them here.
Vacations are relaxing and fun. A time to be together and learn more about each other. I'm so excited about this summer!